Anti-colonial praxis in teacher education for student & educator wellbeing

In post-colonial contexts, a critical issue to consider is how coloniality (power hierarchies, hegemonic knowledge and ‘othering’) in teacher education impacts the wellbeing of students and educators (Vandeyar, 2022). In this article, I utilise an anti-colonial analytical lens and draw on my professional experience in teacher education to highlight areas where anti-colonial praxis can facilitate students’ and educators’ wellbeing. The relevance of anti-colonial analysis allied with therapeutic theories is that it provides conceptual tools in understanding the psychological and epistemic trauma of coloniality (Zembylas, 2015). Crucially, it challenges the epistemic violence – the suppression and devaluation of marginalised knowledge systems by dominant ones – that a (neo)colonial matrix of power engenders in education (Matemba, 2024).